Arts and Culture

Lower Bottom Playaz Brings Shakespeare to West Oakland

Published

11 years ago

August 27, 2013

When driving past the Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement at 920 Peralta St. in West Oakland, few would realize that the center’s backyard features a performance theater capable of seating well over 100 people.

< p>The Sister Thea Bowman Theater is also home to the Lower Bottom Playaz, an intergenerational acting group and one of the oldest Black theater troupes in Oakland.

The troupe has been performing since 1999 and moved to the Sister Thea Bowman Theater two years later when construction in the backyard was finished.

“People wonder is it a real theater if it’s in the back yard? Of course it is – we’ve provided theater seasons in West Oakland for over a decade.” said Ayodele Nzinga, founder and director of the Lower Bottom Playaz.

“Our name is comes from The Lower Bottoms, also known as The Village Bottoms, a destination point in various migrations of North American Africans.”

Over the course of 12 years, Nzinga has helped train and mentor several young African American residents in performance and theater art. Nzinga also teaches a free summer theater day camp for elementary and middle schoolers.

The troupe got its start performing everywhere from homeless shelters and parking lots to prisons, where it gained popularity for its adaptations of William Shakespeare, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry.

“I wanted to take famous plays like William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and make it relevant to the struggles our community is going through,” said Nzinga. “Romeo & Juliet became ‘Ebony and Johnny’ and Macbeth became ‘Mac (A Gangster’s Tale)’ set in the West Oakland neighborhood. There’s always a social justice element to our shows.

The locations of the famous works were changed to a West Oakland setting as a way of increasing social awareness on community concerns and topics including gangs, organized religion, the healthcare system, and gentrification.

The troupe has a core membership of 10 with 40 contributing actors. Among them, Stan Huts and Koran Streets have emerged as recent breakout stars from the 2013 coming-of-age film “Licks” directed by Jonathan Singer-Vine.

Koran Streets, 23, remembers when he started acting at age 12 and was cast in Romeo and Juliet alongside his brother Huts.

“It was opening night and I was halfway through my monologue in the first scene of the play when my phone went off blasting the Crime Mob song ‘Knuck if you Buck,’” said Streets. “The audience started cracking up. I was embarrassed so I walked off the stage.”

He shakes his head laughing to himself and says that experience helped him get over stage fright and become a better actor. Aside from acting, Streets has gained a following for his music, releasing rap mixtapes such as “You Know I Got It, Vol.2” to local critical acclaim.

“There’s so many things that can lead you down a negative path in life, and Lower Bottom Playaz gives kids motivation to stop from getting involved in street life and towards something positive,” said Streets. “I don’t know where I would if I wasn’t acting and doing music.”

Nzinga says that funding for the Lower Bottom Playaz is running out, and the group is looking for financial support to keep productions going and their actors paid.

“Many former members of the troupe have come up to me through different walks of life and told me about the impact Lower Bottom Playaz had on them,” said Nzinga. “As a community theater troupe, we’ve provided opportunities for many of the young Black males in this city, and that’s something we can’t afford to lose.”

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Arts and Culture

Faces Around the Bay Dr. Carl Blake, Pianist

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999. One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Dr. Carl Blake

By Barbara Fluhrer

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999.

One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Blake obtained a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and continued post-baccalaureate studies in Jamaica before earning a Master of Arts in Music at San Jose State University. He was the recipient of two Fulbright residencies in Honduras and completed a third residency at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Cornell University.

At age 19, Blake, then an undergraduate piano major at Boston University, was “discovered” by Impresario Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams, who is the Founder and Director of Today’s Artists/Four Seasons Arts.

Williams honored Blake by awarding him the first Marian Anderson Young Artist Award. Anderson personally presented the award at the Masonic Auditorium in S.F. Subsequently, Blake was presented by Dr. Williams in his San Francisco debut at The Herbst Theatre. Williams subsidized a year of study abroad for Blake at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Additionally, Williams sponsored Blake’s New York Weill Hall debut, where he has performed twice since. Blake performed several times at the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon.

Blake continues to perform nationally and abroad. His hobbies are reading, baking and travel. He says, “I’m still pumping ivories, as Belgian pianist Jeanne Stark described the disciplined practice of concert piano.”

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Arts and Culture

Oakland Jazz Great Offers Master Class as City Declares “John Handy Day”

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city. Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

(L-R) Del Handy, John Handy, Roger Glenn, and Joe Warner celebrate John Handy Day at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, Oakland. Photo by Lady Bianca.

By Conway Jones

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city.

Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

“John Handy is a jazz icon and an inspiration to musicians everywhere,” said Ayo Brame, a 16-year-old Oakland tenor saxophone player who is enrolled at the Oakland School for the Arts.

In celebration of this day, the reception in downtown Oakland at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle was a gathering of artists, young and old, coming together in his honor and celebrating his 91st birthday.

Handy presented a Saxophone Colossus free masterclass for musicians. This class afforded a rare opportunity to learn about the saxophone from an aficionado. The class was free and open to all – saxophonists, vocalists, aficionados, students, and casual listeners.

“As a longtime friend for over 60 years, and fellow musician who has had numerous opportunities to share the stage with John, it has always been a pleasure performing with him and hearing his creative interpretations of the music and his gift of ease inspiring the next generation of jazz musicians,” said Roger Glenn, a multi-instrumentalist.

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Arts and Culture

Musical Chronicling Life of Betty Reid Soskin Set for Bay Area Debut

Betty Reid Soskin’s storied 102 years includes time spent as a WWII defense worker, activist, business owner, songwriter, National Park Service park ranger and so much more. Now the Richmond icon is the subject of a musical based on her incredible life.

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Betty Reid Soskin. Photo courtesy of Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond.

The Richmond Standard

“Sign My Name to Freedom,” a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) production which will focus on the life, music and writing of Ms. Soskin, will premiere at San Francisco’s Z Space Friday, March 29 and continue through Saturday, April 13. Tickets range from $15–$65 and can be purchased online at https://www.sfbatco.org/smntf

The musical is directed by Elizabeth Carter, while playwright Michael Gene Sullivan integrates Ms. Soskin’s own music throughout dialogue between what SFBATCO calls “The Four Bettys” as they progress through a century of experiences of this awe-inspiring American woman.

The cast of “Sign My Name to Freedom” features Tierra Allen as Little Betty, Aidaa Peerzada as Married Betty, Lucca Troutman as Revolutionary Betty and Cathleen Riddley as Present Betty Reid Soskin, according to Artistic Director Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. and Managing Director Adam Maggio. Other casting will be announced in the future.

Jackson said that having Soskin’s blessing to steward her life’s story is an honor and career highlight for him and that her journey stands as “a beacon for Black Americans, women and people of color all across the world [and] is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.”

San Francisco’s Z Space is located at 450 Florida St. in San Francisco. Check out the trailer here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ap9N2XBB0